There’s a small glen not far from our house. On a good day I go up there to read my paper. It’s quiet in the mornings apart from the odd person out walking their dog. Sometimes I sit for a while and watch the rabbits or maybe a fox – there tends to be more […]

Autumn Makes Me Sad Seasonally Associated Disorder Referred to as SAD by those who think they know, that a little lack of sunshine makes us feel like forty degrees below. It’s a chemical imbalance. Think of hibernating mammals. We have the same inclination. So until the clocks change to longer days. It will be my […]

Robin Lloyd-Jones And what a big chair it was! Robin Lloyd-Jones looked like a pixie – size wise that is! Loved the concept of the Big Chair. Looking at six photographs selected from your life would really tax anyone methinks. Probably reveal a side of you never before realised. Robin started with a photo of […]

A Summer Poem by Nina Quigley SUMMERING 26/7/14 Rain creeps quietlyinto my consciousnessfrom the open windowas I waken to a soft dayafter several torrid days of heat. For once in Irelandthe hot sand burned our feet,and we had to hop sharpishdown to the water,to spend languid periodsof uncharted timeswanning about in the salton body boards,being […]

Full Circle Saturday 23 rd. August 1969, a day to remember, forever. They waved me off to my new life in Glasgow. My mum and the whole family. Tears glistened in their eyes, mine filled with tears and a nervous chill spread across my spine as I settled into the Air – India seat. The […]

The Whistle I had set my alarm to ensure I was up in good time. I am normally up well before 7am but this morning was extra-special. I turned on the radio and waited, listening to the scene being set. At 728 am I stood in remembrance of an event of 100 years ago. A […]

On a recent visit to Ireland I met my friend Nina Quigley and we had a great chat on the topic of writing. I learned that Nina had branched out from writing poetry and had written some short stories. When I told her about the Sad and Happy Summer Stories and Poems I had been […]

Hi Ho Hi Ho Trident’s Got To Go and The Boys of The Somme HI HO HI HO, TRIDENT’S GOT TO GO by Brian Whittingham On YouTube a 60’s newsreel. A black and white Dunoon. A smartly dressed Ban the Bomber waves a To Hell with Polaris placard reminding us that H stands for Hiroshima […]

White Nights In twilight silvered gardens in uncurtained bedrooms people stop stumble from dark pubs check their watches look up and smile. This northern sky shimmers with stretched summer light. The stars have bunked off, leaving the Moon to guard their beds. A lonesome fox lopes careless across sequinned lawns, passed the Ancestors saluting the […]

Fallen apples, vine leaves tumble Strawberries bow Like grief stricken women As autumn sends her kiss Eurus carries a child in the white foam Of his sea Zephyrus does not hear the cries Of this tiny refugee Round by the hut a willow- tree weeps, its trunk sodden ‘n’ soft Pear tree has birthed Black […]

Fallen apples, vine leaves tumble Strawberries bow Like grief stricken women As autumn sends her kiss Eurus carries a child in the white foam Of his sea Zephyrus does not hear the cries Of this tiny refugee Round by the hut a willow- tree weeps, its trunk sodden ‘n’ soft Pear tree has birthed Black […]

This isn’t a story as such but a sharing of a pleasant and thought provoking event. Today I met my friend Issi for a little catch up before the holidays. I’m a bit nosy and having had many years of close ties with the University of Glasgow – as a mature, more mature and getting-on-a-bit […]

In May, 1816, the poet, Shelley and his lover, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin,travelled to Switzerland to meet Lord Byron. Byron and Shelley had both rented houses near Lake Geneva and were constantly in each other’s company. Shelley recorded that being with Byron inspired him. It was a strange summer for that year summer was non-existent. Spring was as normal in Europe and Northern America but the […]